Baseball pitcher mourned

Sunday

Aug 23, 2009 at 6:00 AMAug 25, 2009 at 6:46 PM

By Paul Jarvey TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

Greg Montalbano of Westboro, the former St. John’s High and Northeastern University baseball star, who went on to become the Boston Red Sox minor league player of the year, lost his long battle with cancer on Friday.

He would have turned 32 tomorrow.

Baseball brought Montalbano a measure of notoriety, but it wasn’t his only area of accomplishment. He was an Eagle Scout who enjoyed the outdoors. He earned a degree in industrial engineering at Northeastern and put it to use working for Martell Associated in Ashland after cancer forced him to give up his baseball career after playing parts of three seasons with the Worcester Tornadoes.

A hard-throwing, left-handed pitcher, Montalbano fought the disease for 13 years with countless rounds of treatment and surgeries, with fund-raising efforts for the Jimmy Fund and with talks to raise awareness of the illness.

Red Sox general manager Theo Epstein called Montalbano an “inspirational figure” to everyone in the organization who knew him.

The Red Sox honored Montalbano with a moment of silence before yesterday’s game against the Yankees at Fenway Park. The Tornadoes are paying tribute with a black banner hanging under the center-field scoreboard with Montalbano’s initials, “G.J.M.,” and his No. 22 in orange letters.

Montalbano was first diagnosed with testicular cancer as a freshman at Northeastern in 1996. He missed a year of baseball, but returned to the mound after his cancer went into remission and was drafted by the Red Sox in the fifth round in 1999.

Montalbano never made it to Fenway, but his presence was felt in the Red Sox clubhouse yesterday.

“He was a funny guy who enjoyed playing baseball and had a lot of fun playing the game,” said Kevin Youkilis, who played with Montalbano in 2003 at Double-A Portland. “He was great. It was unfortunate with all the events he had with tumors and all the other stuff. It probably kept him from playing a lot longer and doing a lot better.”

Youkilis had heard about Montalbano’s latest surgery and had hoped to visit him this week after the Sox returned from their road trip. After hitting his first of two home runs yesterday, Youkilis pointed to the sky, he said, to honor his friend.

“I didn’t know it was that severe until now,” Youlkilis said. “It’s amazing how that stuff works. I’m upset with myself that I didn’t have a chance to go say ‘hi.’ ”

In St. Petersburg, Fla., Montalbano’s former Northeastern University teammate, Tampa Bay Rays slugger Carlos Pena, also honored his friend by mouthing “that was for Monty” into a television camera after hitting a home run in the second inning. After hitting another homer in the fourth inning, Pena held a hand-written note up to the camera that read “For U Monty.”

The Sox are locked in a heated battle with the first-place Yankees this weekend and the series has fans on edge, but Youkilis said the death of his former teammate puts the games in the proper perspective.

“Life is short and there’s a lot more to it than what you see here,” Youkilis said. “I laugh at some of the things we see here, the negativity. Someone doesn’t get a base hit and it’s a life-and-death situation. It’s not life and death on the baseball field. Life and death is off the field. These are games.”

Manny Delcarmen was drafted in 2000, a year after Montalbano. They never played together, but their paths crossed in spring training.

“I got to know him the first couple of years, and he was an awesome kid. He loved playing. I know he did things for the community, too.

“He was down to earth and a funny guy. He tried to keep everyone loose. He was a good teammate.”

Delcarmen was stunned to hear that Montalbano had died.

“We complain about little things and … I just don’t know what to say. I heard about it today and I said, ‘no way.’ The last I heard was that he beat it again.”

Team captain Jason Varitek called the news tragic.

“He showed remarkable courage, perseverance and grace in his battle with illness,” Epstein said. “He will always be remembered here as an important part of the Red Sox organization. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the Montalbano family.”

After two years in the low minors, the 6-foot-2, 180-pound southpaw enjoyed his best professional season in 2001, going 9-3 with a 2.96 ERA for Single-A Sarasota, while being chosen as the Sox minor league pitcher of the year.

Montalbano was slated to start for Triple-A Pawtucket in 2002, but developed a frayed labrum during spring training and missed the entire season after surgery. He returned to pitch six games for Double-A Portland in 2003 and six more in 2004, but developed further arm trouble.

Finally healthy again, Montalbano returned to the mound in 2005, but was released by the Red Sox during spring training. He signed with the Tornadoes soon after and went 7-5 in two seasons, including a 5-3 mark in 2006.

But that season, one of the best in team history which included 25-1/3 straight scoreless innings, was cut short by a second cancer diagnosis. He did not immediately share the news — that doctors had discovered a tumor near his hip bone — with his teammates. Instead, he chose to pitch at night while traveling to Boston for tests in the early mornings.

He pitched his final game on Aug. 13, 2006, and broke the news that his cancer had returned, to his teammates during an emotional meeting on Aug. 23. Montalbano said at the time that he didn’t want to announce anything until he underwent treatment because he didn’t want to put himself in the spotlight for anything other than his performance on the field.

“Knowing Monty, you always thought he’d be coming back,” Tornadoes manager Rich Gedman said. “He’d show up (after leaving the team) and throw a bullpen session and you’d watch him and be like, ‘who is that?’ because he was doing so well.”

After having two tumors removed in January 2007, he had hoped to return to baseball in July, but instead underwent a third cancer surgery in six months. In May 2008, doctors found six new tumors.

“He enjoyed being around and the guys always looked forward to seeing him,” Gedman said. “It’s a shame. My heart goes out to the family. He was truly a wonderful, wonderful person from a wonderful family. We were lucky to have him. There are not enough adjectives to describe what a special, special person he was.”

Matt Weagle, a Tornadoes coach and former teammate of Montalbano’s in Worcester, said you wouldn’t have known Montalbano was sick from watching him pitch.

“If you didn’t know him, you would never know what he’s gone through,” Weagle said. “When he was on the mound, that’s where he wanted to be. He was a fierce competitor and he gave you everything he had. That translated on and off the field.”

Weagle said he was fortunate to have known Montalbano.

“It would be a shame not to have taken something from Greg,” he said. “If you can’t learn something from how he went about life or how he played the game, then you’re not doing him or yourself justice.

“He was dealt a bad hand, but he’d tell you there were kids who weren’t even able to pick up baseballs, but (he) was,” Weagle said. “He never held a grudge.”

Visitation will be held from 4 to 8 p.m. tomorrow at St. Luke the Evangelist Church, 70 West Main St., Westboro. A funeral Mass will be celebrated at the church at 10:30 a.m. Tuesday. Burial will follow in St. Luke’s Cemetery.

In lieu of flowers, contributions can be made in Montalbano’s memory to St. John’s High School Baseball, 378 Main St., Shrewsbury, MA 01545, or Northeastern University Baseball, 219 Cabot Center, 360 Huntington Ave., Boston, MA 02115.

Dave Nordman and Jim Wilson of the Telegram & Gazette staff contributed to this report.